Wasteland 2 by inXile entertainment Kickstarter update #4 features Brian Fargo channeling his inner Billy Joel to explain "We didn't start the fire." He says that while they are on the verge of the $1.5 million funding level that will permit them to create Linux and OS X editions of Wasteland 2, he does not foresee making console editions of the post-apocalyptic RPG sequel: "It is imperative that we deliver the core PC experience that the fans are expecting here and I want to avoid any elements that could distract us. The console interface is quite different when you consider the input device and proximity to the screen whereas the Mac and Linux are pretty much identical to that of the 'PC'. We will consider a tablet version due to the similarity of the screen and interface but even on that we need to do a bit more research." He also proposes a little Kickstarter socialism to help share the tremendous support some projects are receiving:

And speaking of goodwill it occurs to me that we can harness the power of Kickstarter in a more meaningful way. Fan funding is bigger than me or Wasteland 2 as I have remarked before. The development community has come together to support us in ways that I didn't think possible and our power as developers will ultimately come from us sticking together. Both gamers and developers have so much more strength than they realize. But in order to help facilitate the power of crowd funding I am going to suggest that all of us that do utilize this form of financing agree to kickback 5% of our profits made from such projects to other Kickstarter developers. I am not suggesting taking a backers money and moving it to another project.. I mean once a game has shipped and created profit that we funnel that back into the community of developers to fund their dreams. I am tentatively calling this "Kick It Forward" and I will be the first to agree to it. In fact, I will have our artists create a badge that goes on all Kickstarter projects that agree to support this initiative. Imagine the potential if another Minecraft comes along via Kickstarter and produces millions of dollars of investment into other developers. This economic payback will continue to grow the movement way beyond the current system. I hope others will join me with this idea and make this a true shakeup.

InBlack wrote on Mar 21, 2012, 11:03:Ive read a lot of hate directed at Fargo, that it was ultimately him who ran Interplay into the ground. Anyone know is that true or ultimately unfounded internet conjecture???

As promised, my writeup last time I saw false stuff like this:

Dev wrote on Dec 29, 2011, 15:37:No, he [Herve Caen] was the one that drove the company into the ground in the first place. He's sticking around to milk every last dollar from its corpse.

The company wasn't "sold" under Fargo. A french company Titus that was founded by Herve and Eric Caen, bought out interplay by purchasing a majority of their stock. Essentially a hostile takeover. That was in 2000. In 2002 they then forced out Fargo, and replaced him with Herve.

BTW, speaking of Fargo, he lent $3 million of his own money to interplay to try and get them through some trouble spots. You don't see that kinda thing being done by Caen bros.

By 2004 Interplay was evicted for nonpayment by the landlord and got in trouble with California gov for not paying employees and taxes.Then the french holding company went bankrupt in 2005 under the Caen brothers leadership. Herve hired his brother back at interplay a couple years ago. Spending more money annually on their salaries than Fallout MMO Development.

Black Isle (arguably the best part of interplay making their best games) developed most of the best of their games 2002 and earlier. Caen shut them down in 2003 right before christmas.

The last decent fallout game (tactics) came out early 2001. Immediately after taking over, Harve Caen then pushed interplay away from PC games into doing crappy console games such as fallout brotherhood of steel.

IMHO, not only did he drive them into the ground, he consolified them, and took all the money from their corpse that he could.

Seriously, look at the financials. Interplay (aka the Caen brothers) spent a grand total of ONE million dollars on fallout MMO development in 4 years, while taking millions in direct salary (not counting bonuses and options).